Hanoi: St Paul hospital opens endoscopy centre

The centre, worth over 340 billion VND (15 million USD) has been built following
European standards and will become the country’s leading
facility, satisfying the increasing need for the examination and treatment of
people, according to Nguyen Khac Hien, director of Hanoi’s Health Department.

The 2,800 sq.m centre has 12 consulting rooms, 10 patient rooms with 45 beds,
four endoscopic diagnostic rooms and three surgery rooms. It has been equipped with
state of the art medical facilities, including latest Magnetic Resonance
Imaging (MRI) and CT scanners, for early detection of canners related to the
digestive system, such as stomach and rectum cancers.

The centre will help reduce congestion in hospitals, while meeting people’s
increasing demand for high quality services and minimizing the number of
patients going abroad for cancer treatment, said Chairman of Hanoi’s People
Committee Nguyen Duc Chung at the event.

The city has bought a digestive cancer screening system from Japan that can
provide early detection of cancers of the digestive systems of people aged 40
and above. Patient will have to only pay 63,000 VND (2.8 USD) for a service fee
each time, compared to 15 USD in Singapore or 26 USD in the US, said Chung.

The
320 tests-per-hour system could help in the early detection and treatment of
cancer for thousands of patients as well as prevent cancer for 5,000-10,000
people each year in the city, he said.

He noted that Hanoi will also put in place a programme on the transference of
techniques on screening and treating diseases for babies in the womb from 26
weeks and above, as part of a cooperative medical programme that will be signed
soon between the city and Paris, France.-VNA